Decatur PD’s Jennifer Ross sends along this alert…

The Decatur Police Department is currently investigating a series of day time burglaries in the Winnona Park/South Candler Street/Oakhurst areas that appear to be related.  The burglaries have occurred as follows:

• May 30th – 500 block of South Candler Street
• June 2nd – 600 block of South Candler Street
• June 3rd – 500 block of Oakview Road
• June 7th – 300 block of Mimosa Drive
• June 9th – 2500 block of Midway Road
• June 17th – 200 block of East Davis Street
• June 18th – 300 block of Kirk Road & 200 block of Avery Street
• June 19th – 100 block of West Hill Street

All homes were unoccupied at the time of the burglary and entry was made by forcing doors and windows.   The majority of the homes targeted have notable foliage, driveways with inclines or driveways that continue behind the home or rear alleys which all provide concealment for suspect vehicles.  The suspects are taking electronics such as large flat screen televisions, laptops and jewelry.  Many of the televisions would require the use of a vehicle to transport.  Three of the nine homes targeted had alarm systems.  One alarm was bypassed by cutting the power to the home, one alarm was activated and nothing was taken from the home and one alarm was activated and only items in the room that was initially entered were taken and the rest of the home was undisturbed.

In one case, a witness reported seeing a black male flee the scene in a white van.  In one case, a witness reported seeing four or five young black males flee the scene in what was later determined to be a vehicle stolen out of Dekalb County.  In one case, a neighbor later reported seeing an unknown vehicle at the victim’s home, but police were not called until much later.

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As is apparently mentioned deep within the personnel report submitted to the School Board at the June 11th meeting, Assistant Superintendent Thomas Van Soelen is leaving his position at City Schools of Decatur effective June 28th.  In a note addressed to a parent and posted on the Winnona Park message board, Mr. Van Soelen detailed his future plans…

I started my own educational consulting firm focused on learning communities, leadership development, and teacher evaluation.

Despite some tough conversations and inquiries over the years, Mr. Van Soelen has always been an accommodating, friendly and knowledgeable contact for us.  We certainly wish him the best!

• DeKalb CEO accused of strong-arming vendors [AJC]
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• Why Atlanta is taking tiny bits of info very seriously [CL]
• City of Briarcliff has raised $16k of $30k needed for study [Patch]
• Map iPhone users in any city and you know where the rich live [Atlantic Cities]
• What happens when you deactivate your Facebook account [New Yorker]

Sycamore Street, Decatur GA (pic submitted by Chris)

Feel free to use this post to make comments and ask questions about local issues not discussed here over the past week.

Comments close on Monday.